UPDATED Sonic Mania Brings the Genesis Aesthetic with the Collector’s Edition for North America

SEGA continues enticing us with the release of Sonic Mania by announcing a collector’s edition with a statue base of Sonic standing atop a Genesis (With an actual power switch that will yell SEGA!! at you,) a Genesis cartridge cast with a golden ring as well as the download code on a metal card. Priced at $69.99 these sets will release for all announced platforms for it’s spring 2017 release. While the Sonic social media accounts point to the official Sonic website for a pre-order page, at the time of this writing the website does not appear to be working and is instead directing everyone to Amazon to get their orders in.

I’m a little surprised that the system isn’t replicating a SEGA Saturn, but let’s face it, with the game’s history being reflected on the Genesis (Without a SEGA CD or 32X mushroom head attachment, mind) it’s more than appropriate. Of course for some of you reading this, you may be wondering about a European release, and according to several sources it has been confirmed that there is no plan to do so. Strange, especially after the collector’s set for Sonic Generations was Europe only, it’s an odd move on their part. Nintendo fans are potentially equally bitter as not even the game itself is coming to any of their platforms.

It’s unsure when these sets will sell out, but there is still plenty of time before it’s release in Spring of 2017.

It’s ironic how I’m more interested in this shit than the game itself, that Sonic statue looks interesting, I’ll probably snatch it if I find it being sold separately, I’m not paying extra to buy the collectors edition of “Sonic The Fan-Game”.

So because this game is made by people who made fan games, have spent a huge amount of time learning what classic Sonic games should be like, and probably know better how to make a new one than the current Sonic Team would, you’re not buying it.

Okay.

(P.S. none of the people working on Sonic games now were involved with the original game so really every new official Sonic game could be considered a fan game. :V)

No, I didn’t call it that because it was made by fans I called it fan game because that’s how it looks to me, with SAGE coming up we’re gonna see more Sonic Mania like titles, they may not have the same budget and effort put into them but they’re on bar with Mania in my book.

As for current Sonic Team being less competent I’ll agree with you in which I don’t really like most of what they done (this includes Generations which is only half decent in my book, the decent half is the 2D levels cause I just don’t like the boost gameplay) but I will say that “most of the time” Dimps end up making the better versions of Sonic games that I like, Lost World and Unleashed included.

Well Sonic fan games generally try to look like the classic Sonic games, and Mania looks like a classic Sonic game too so I guess you’re sorta right. Still a shitty reason not to buy it though. :V

(Though I don’t believe you actually think the Dimps version of Lost World is the better one cause OOOOOOH BOY)

Bartman301009/19/2016 at 5:38 am

At least it’s a Sonic fan game that will actually be finished? But for real, it’s a miracle that any fan game gets worked on, let alone completed, without any kind of budget. But because they’re members of our community you’re throwing a fit that they’re earning money off of hard work?

I actually liked Sonic Lost World and I think the 3DS version was the better one, sure it had long levels and some wisps required motion controls, which I didn’t like, but the overall experience was close to how I want a Sonic game to be, something similar to the Adventure titles, also parkour system was great.

On a related note, Dimps’ version of Generations I actually dislike so that’s an example of a game made by them I think worse than Sonic Team’s, also to some extent I prefer Colors on the Wii than the DS but both versions are decent.

My issue with Mania isn’t that it’s emulating the Genesis, it’s because it’s emulating them 1:1 without considering what other series done right to improve on them, I trust Taxman to make a good game but his obsession with Sonic CD and Knuckles Chaotix is what concerns me, Sonic Advance did a lot of things right to expand upon Sonic 3 with expanded move set for each character as well as a fourth character that added to the challenge, Sonic 3 is great, don’t get me wrong, but it had flaws that the Advance series fixed later on, sure said games had flaws too, my point is don’t be a copycat, take what worked and throw away what doesn’t, that’s what concerns me the most.